Are you Open-Minded?
Open courseware is starting a revolution…find out what it's all about

What Open Courseware is about:

If you're looking for resources to supplement school studies or materials for independent study, then you should check-out what open courseware can offer you. With a young but rich history behind it, open courseware will change the way the world learns and disseminates educational resources. So what is open courseware then?

The OpenCourseware Consortium defines open courseware (OCW) as: "a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses." But OCW offers more than what this definition mentions. Not only do OCW websites contain high quality materials in a variety of digital forms, they also boast a large assortment of courses. Almost anybody can have access to college-level courses from institutions like MIT and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Most of the institutions offer materials such as video lectures , class notes, and practice exams to help you test yourself. Subjects available range from economics to thermodynamics…depending on the institution and website.

The idea of OCW ultimately grew out of a desire to enhance distance learning. While many online courses required a hefty tuition, OCW surprised its contemporaries by offering free educational material. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology pioneered the novel system with its OCW website launched in 2002, with 32 courses - four years later, it has 1,400 courses. Now a collaboration of 100 universities worldwide have formed the OpenCourseWare Consortium to standardize and advance OCW material. This consortium hopes to prolong the idea of OCW as long as possible by encouraging universities to publish OCW materials. Whatever the future holds from OCW materials, it will likely include success.

To read about how OCW can help you, click here

Resources:
Consortium website: http://www.ocwconsortium.org
MIT OCW website: http://www.ocw.mit.edu